First Snowfall

Listen to this as you read:



Today has had several strange memories for me.
The day before Thanksgiving. What a silly day.
The most traveled day of the year.
The day I got a $50 parking ticket.
And almost got into a car crash from weeping so fiercely.


But this year, it has been a wonder.
My first full, Diana-filled free day in almost 3 months.
And my list of "things-I-want-to-accomplish-when-I-have-free-time" was getting very long.
Thankful to say, I crossed many things off that list today.
Including catching up on my creativity.
For although I have not painted, drawn, or sketched in quite a while,
That does not mean the ideas stopped flowing.
Quite the opposite.
I have so many new painting ideas in my head,
On scrap pieces of paper,
Texted into my Notes app on my phone,
That I was greatly in need of a day like today.


Unfortunately for me,
I am currently stuck in the "waiting for paint to dry" phase.
Sigh.
I suppose my creative juices will have to pause until my next free day.
Until then,
Enjoy my progress.

 Works-in-progress

Finished works

CHECK IT OUT

My new business cards.

The Holidays

Cold weather, warm fire.
Cold greetings, warm smiles.
Cold fingers, warm dinners.

The most extreme contrasts happen during the holidays.
Am I looking forward to the cold that inevitably seeps under the cracks of my windows and floats down into my room?
Not particularly.
But I do enjoy getting bundled in a big, fuzzy blanket,
Watching marathons of classics,
Or strange, foreign movies on Netflix.

Regardless,
However you enjoy your holiday season,
I'm presenting a new kind of "warmth" that may bring you or someone you know a smile.

I've decided to sell my daily drawings,
As a mutual benefit.
I'd rather have my drawings hanging in someone's house that will appreciate them,
Then to clutter my already small, Philly town home.
The price range will be $15-$50, you're choice.
I can frame them if you wish, and even ship them to you if that is easier (additional cost possible.)
Here they are:

 

 
 

Tell me,
Every time you look at one of my drawings for longer than a glance.

Missing

I missed October.
All of it.
Where did it go?

I miss my palette knife.
And my oil paints.
My make-shift studio.
My college studio.

I miss the presence of art.
Surrounded by other art lovers and art critics.
Constantly feeding off of their thoughts and ideas and objections.

I miss having time to experiment,
Time to engage and lock myself into a new painting,
No limits, nowhere to be.

I wholeheartedly appreciate those two months I had off of work.
I pushed myself, I produced, I practiced techniques.
Now I'm two months into two part-time jobs,
Exhausted and out of practice.
This is an artist's constant struggle.
Finding the time between jobs, a social life, and family
To create and keep creating and promoting and showing and talking and smiling.
The balance that others may not ever have to experience.
What do non-creatives do in their free time?
What is it like to have free time?

In spite of all this,
I'm not going to lie and say I have new work.
Right now.
I do have five new paintings in the process of being completed.
Right in the middle of my studio.
AKA my bedroom floor.
I will push myself harder,
Because I'm good at it.
And I will be posting my new paintings soon.

For now though,
I still have several paintings hanging at Kitchen 319 in Glendora, NJ,
And I have a whole wall at Jack McShea's in Ardmore, PA.

Here's a local Philly artist that is making me miss these things.

Meet Gregory Prestegord.

Irish Pubs

Come for the beer.
Come for the amazing huge plate of french fries.
And come for the colorful artwork displayed on the wall!

We also started another group painting which I took home and will mold into a nice addition to my work.

 

Joyous.